This file documents the instructions for upgrading to Slackware 13.37, the
packages added, removed, renamed, and/or split during the development cycle
from Slackware 13.1 through 13.37, and some potential "gotchas" that users
can avoid by arming themselves with a little knowledge.
*** INSTRUCTIONS FOR UPGRADING FROM 13.1 ***
Follow the instructions detailed in the UPGRADE.TXT located in this
directory.
Note that upgrading from a Slackware version earlier than 13.1 is NOT
supported at all and will most likely not work.
*** PACKAGE ADDITIONS SINCE 13.1 ***
a/btrfs-progs
a/gdisk
a/libcgroup
a/lrzip
a/mcelog
a/util-linux (renamed from util-linux-ng)
ap/ddrescue
ap/lxc
ap/moc
d/slacktrack (moved from /extra)
d/yasm (moved from /extra)
kde/libktorrent
l/gdk-pixbuf2
l/libdbusmenu-qt
l/libelf
l/libmpc
l/liboggz
l/libpcap (split from tcpdump package)
l/libplist
l/libsndfile
l/phonon-mplayer
n/ca-certificates
n/idnkit
n/iptraf-ng (replaced iptraf)
n/iwlwifi-100-ucode
n/iwlwifi-6xxx-ucode
n/rfkill
x/radeon_ucode
x/xdg-user-dirs
x/xf86-video-nouveau
xap/xaos
extra/google-chrome/*
/testing/ includes the following:
2.6.38.4 kernel
mesa-7.10.2
libdrm-2.4.25
xf86-video-nouveau-git_20110417_8378443
*** PACKAGE REMOVALS SINCE 13.1 ***
a/util-linux-ng (renamed to util-linux)
kde/guidance-power-manager
l/eggdbus
n/iptraf (replaced by iptraf-ng)
x/libXTrap
x/libXprintAppUtil
x/libXprintUtil
x/libxkbui
x/rstart
x/trapproto
x/xf86rushproto
x/xfindproxy
x/xfwp
x/xplsprinters
x/xprehashprinterlist
x/xproxymanagementprotocol
x/xsetmode
x/xsetpointer
x/xtrap
extra/kde3-compat/
*** OTHER NOTABLE CHANGES AND HINTS ***
The Slackware installer uses udev to initialize your hardware, including the
network interface card(s). This has positive consequences for network
installations (using NFS, FTP, HTTP or SMB). You no longer have to run the
'pcmcia' and 'network' scripts prior to running 'setup' - the network
interface will be created and intialized by udev. If a DHCP server is
found on your local network, the setup program will let you choose between
automatic configuration of your network interface using DHCP or specifying
a static IP address. Using udev, the commandline for fully unattended
configuration and startup of the dropbear SSH server has changed slightly.
Suppose you want to boot the 'hugesmp' kernel, use DHCP for interface eth0,
and you have a us-english keyboard layout: the commandline to auto-start
the SSH daemon in the installer would become:
hugesmp.s kbd=us nic=auto:eth0:dhcp
Note: if you do not want to use udev, the "auto" keyword in that example
commandline must be replaced with the actual name of the network module for
your card. If you do not want to use udev, you must add the parameter
"noudev" to the command line that boots the Slackware installer, and the
original ("old") Slackware hardware configuration scripts will be used.
Also note that this is not supported...
Use one of the provided generic kernels for daily use. Do not report
bugs until/unless you have reproduced them using one of the stock
generic kernels. You will need to create an initrd in order to boot
the generic kernels - see /boot/README.initrd for instructions.
The huge kernels are primarily intended as "installer" and "emergency"
kernels in case you forget to make an initrd. For most systems, you
should use the generic SMP kernel if it will run, even if your system is
not SMP-capable. Some newer hardware needs the local APIC enabled in the
SMP kernel, and theoretically there should not be a performance penalty
with using the SMP-capable kernel on a uniprocessor machine, as the SMP
kernel tests for this and makes necessary adjustments. Furthermore, the
kernel sources shipped with Slackware are configured for SMP usage, so you
won't have to modify those to build external modules (such as NVidia or
ATI proprietary drivers) if you use the SMP kernel.
If you decide to use one of the non-SMP kernels, you will need to follow the
instructions in /extra/linux-2.6.37.6-nosmp-sdk/README.TXT to modify your
kernel sources for non-SMP usage. Note that this only applies if you are
using the Slackware-provided non-SMP kernel - if you build a custom kernel,
the symlinks at /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/{build,source} will point to the
correct kernel source so long as you don't (re)move it.
As with 13.1, the system udev rules now reside in /lib/udev/rules.d/ instead
of /etc/udev/rules.d/ in older versions. There should never be a reason
to edit anything in /lib/udev/rules.d/, so if you think you have a case
where this is required, either you're wrong or it needs to be addressed in
the upstream source. However, you can override default rules by placing
one with an identical name inside /etc/udev/rules.d/ The rules files in
/etc/udev/rules.d/ are still intended to (maybe) be edited as needed by
local system administrators, and as such, the rules for optical and network
devices will still be placed there.
Speaking of udev, pay particular attention to 70-persistent-net.rules and
70-persistent-cd.rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/ -- these two are automatically
generated by the system. If you remove, add, and/or replace some hardware
(specifically network cards and/or optical drives) in a machine, you will
probably need to edit one or both of the rules files mentioned above.
HP multifunction printer/scanners require that your user account be a member
of the "lp" group for hp-toolbox to work properly, and to use the scanner
portion of some (all?) units, you'll need to be a member of the "lp" group.
This is because hplip's udev rules set the device with group "lp" ownership.
HAL is not new anymore, but here are a few notes related to it:
1. User accounts with permission to mount removable devices and manipulate
bluetooth devices must be in at least the "plugdev" group.
2. User accounts with permission to do power-management tasks, such as
suspend, hibernate, reboot, and shutdown, via HAL methods should be in
the "power" group.
3. User accounts with permission to use network devices, such as with the
wicd package in /extra, should be in the "netdev" group.
4. User accounts with permission to use devices that "dial out" or connect
over a serial port (serial console connections to plug computers, sync
with a palm device, etcetera) will need to be in the "dialout" group.
5. HAL will honor settings in /etc/fstab if a device is present there, so
you could technically have removable devices defined in /etc/fstab, but
if the fstab settings do not allow normal users to mount them (with the
"user" or "users" option), then HAL/dbus will not allow them to be
mounted either. In other words, for example, if your fstab line for the
cdrom/dvd drive includes the "owner" option, you will not be able to
mount it as a normal user.
6. If you find a need for modified fdi files, those should be placed in the
relevant directories in /etc/hal/fdi/ instead of /usr/share/hal/fdi/
The version of Xorg in Slackware 13.37 will not (in most cases) require an
/etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Input hotplugging is no longer done using hal;
instead, it now uses udev for input device detection and keyboard mapping.
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ is the "packaged" configuration directory; all
files ending with ".conf" in this directory are used by the X server
unless there is an identically-named file in the local sysadmin directory.
The local sysadmin config directory is /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ - all files
ending with ".conf" in this directory are parsed.
There are several default config files in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/:
* 10-evdev.conf
a "catchall" file for input devices using the evdev driver; this
should work for most hardware in the absence of a better driver
* 50-synaptics.conf
overrides the earlier 10-evdev.conf file and uses the synaptics
driver for all touchpads
* 50-wacom.conf
overrides the earlier 10-evdev.conf file and uses the wacom driver
for Wacom tablets
* 90-keyboard-layout.conf
this sample ("normal" en layout) keeps the "old" default of
allowing Zap'ing the Xserver.
If you need to modify any of these defaults, then copy the relevant file
from /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ and edit the
copy.
You can still create an xorg.conf file if you wish, or you can create some
minimal xorg.conf snippets with only the specific contents that you wish
to override (as an example, to use a binary-only video driver) as separate
files in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory.
Regardless of your chipset (though it seems more common with intel), if KDE
crashes on startup, try disabling the Composite extension (which will also
disable all of the fancy desktop effects). Place the following content in
a file at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/disable-composite.conf:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection
Now that KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) for graphics cards has (mostly) stabilized,
it is enabled by default for intel, ati, and nvidia graphics chipsets. It
is possible to disable it use "nomodeset" as a kernel append in lilo.conf,
but Xorg will not work at all on intel and ati chips if you do that.
If you want to change the resolution of the KMS console, that can be done
with something like this as a kernel append in lilo.conf:
append="video=1024x768"
Speaking of lilo.conf and KMS, make sure you use either vga=normal or
vga=extended -- some of the framebuffers don't like KMS very much...
The (formerly) patented bytecode interpreter is now enabled in the freetype
package, so your fonts might look a bit different. If this is undesirable,
you can restore the previous default with this line:
# ln -s ../conf.avail/10-autohint.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/
If you are using a KVM switch, you might experience problems with the mouse
when switching from one system to another. If so, you probably need to be
using the imps protocol for the psmouse driver, and that's a simple edit:
uncomment the following line in /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.conf:
#options psmouse proto=imps
Next, unload and reload the psmouse module (do this as root):
modprobe -r psmouse ; modprobe psmouse
If you have set up an encrypted root partition, you will need to have access
to your keyboard in order to type the passphrase. This may require you to
add the uhci-hcd and usbhid modules to your initrd image if you have a USB
keyboard. Also note that if you are using a non-US keyboard, you can use the
'-l' parameter to the 'mkinitrd' command in order to add support for this
keyboard to your initrd.
If you have permission errors when attempting to burn a cdrom or dvd image,
such as the following:
/usr/bin/cdrecord: Operation not permitted. Cannot send SCSI cmd via ioctl
then cdrecord almost certainly needs root privileges to work correctly.
One potential solution is to make the cdrecord and cdrdao binaries suid root,
but this has possible security implications. The safest way to do that is
to make those binaries suid root, owned by a specific group, and executable
by only root and members of that group. For most people, the example below
will be sufficient (but adjust as desired depending on your specific needs):
chown root:cdrom /usr/bin/cdrecord /usr/bin/cdrdao
chmod 4750 /usr/bin/cdrecord /usr/bin/cdrdao
If you don't want all members of the 'cdrom' group to be able to execute the
two suid binaries, then create a special group (such as 'burning' which is
recommended by k3b), use it instead of 'cdrom' in the line above, and add
to it only the users you wish to have access to cdrecord and cdrdao.
Input methods for complex characters (CJK, which is shorthand for Chinese,
Japanese, Korean) and other non-latin character sets have been added. These
input methods use the SCIM (Smart Common Input Method) platform.
The environment variables for SCIM support are set in /etc/profile.d/scim.sh
The requirements for getting SCIM input methods to work in your X session
are as follows:
(1) Use a UTF-8 locale. Look in /etc/profile.d/lang.sh for setting your
language to (for instance) en_US.UTF-8. As a word of warning: maybe you
should leave root with a non-UTF-8 locale because you don't want root's
commands to be misinterpreted. You can add the following line to your
~/.profile file to enable UTF-8 just for yourself:
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
(2) Make the scim profile scripts executable. These will setup your
environment correctly for the use of scim with X applications. Run:
chmod +x /etc/profile.d/scim.*
(3) Start the scim daemon as soon as your X session starts. The scim daemon
must be active before any of your X applications. In KDE, you can add a
shell script to the ~/.kde/Autostart folder that runs the command
"scim -d". In XFCE you can add "scim -d" to the Autostarted Applications.
If you boot your computer in runlevel 4 (the graphical XDM/KDM login)
you can simply add the line "scim -d" to your ~/.xprofile file.
This gives you a Desktop Environment independent way of starting scim.
When scim is running, you will see a small keyboard icon in your system tray.
Right-click it to enter SCIM Setup. In 'Global Setup' select your keyboard
layout, and you are ready to start entering just about any language
characters you wish! Press the magical key combo <Control><Space>
in order to activate or deactivate SCIM input. The SCIM taskbar in the
desktop's corner allows you to select a language. As you type, SCIM will show
an overview of applicable character glyphs (if you are inputting complex
characters like Japanese).
If you have an older machine (with a BIOS released prior to 2001) and it will
not power off on shutdown, try adding this to your kernel's lilo stanza:
append = "acpi=force"
If you have a Thinkpad T400 or T500, you probably want to append "pci=reboot"
to the kernel boot parameters. For more information about this issue, see
https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=&q=t400+%22pci%3Dreboot%22
